Shovel.



Patented Apr. 24, |900.

` W. WESTERBERG.

SHVEL med Feb. 27, 19Go.)

(No Model.)

fl vnlillnnanl UNITED v STATES PATENT GEETCEe wAsTE WESTEEBERG, on EARLY, IowA.

sHovEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 648,321, dated April 24, 1900.

Application led February 27, 1900. Serial No. 6,718. (No model.)

To all whom, t may concern:

Be it known that I, WASTE WESTERBEEG, a citizen of the United States, residing at Early, in the county of Sac and State of Iowa, have invented a new and useful Shovel, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to improvements in shovels.4

The object of the present invention is to improve the construction of shovels, more especially those employed for tamping and analogous purposes, and to increase the strength, durability, and efiiciency of those shovels employing flanges or wings at the upper edges of the blade to receive the foot of the operator. y

The invention -consists inthe construction and novel combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter fully described, illustrated view of a shovel constructed in accordance with this invention. Fig. Bis a longitudinal sectional view of the same. Fig. 3 is a detail perspective view of the back plate or pad.

Like numerals of reference designate corresponding parts in all the figures of the drawings. v f

l designates a shovel-blade provided at the center of its upper edge with an integral tang 2, which is extended longitudinally of and secured to the front face of the lower portion of a handle 3, as clearlyillustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings, and the upper portion of the blade is provided with the usual bulged portion 4 to conform to the configuration of and receive the lower endof the handle. The shovel is provided at the lrear face of the blade with a tapering pad or back plate 5, located at the upper portion of the blade, as illustrated in Fig. 2, and provided with a central upwardlyextending tang 6, which conforms to the configuration of and receives the lower portion of the handle 3. The handle is rounded andthe front and rear tangs are curved in cross-section to conform to the configuration of the same. The back plate is provided, adjacent to the lower end of the tang 6, with a bulged portion 7 similar to the rating the former.

portion 4 of the blade and located opposite the same.

In order to obviate riveting and the consequent perforation of the plate and the blade, the two parts are welded or brazed together and the plate is provided at it its upper edge at opposite sides of the central tang 6 with forwardly extending wings or anges 8, formed integral with the plate and extending over the upper edge of the blade. These wings or flanges, which extend to the side edges of the blade of the shovel, are adapted to be end gaged by the footof the operator to enable him to use theshovel for tampingand analogous purposes with greater rapidity and with greater force without inconvenience to the operator and without injuring the foot or the shoe. The projecting anges or wings also serve to retain material on the shovel, and thereby increase the capacity of the latter.

It will be seen that the device, which consists of the backplate, with its tangs and flanges or wings, is simpleand comparatively inexpensive in construction, that it increases the strength, durability, and efficiency of thel shovel, and that it may be readily applied to the blade and to the handle without perfo- It will also be apparent that the device is adapted to be stamped or otherwise formed of a single piece of'sheet metal and that the blades or wings project forward, so that their edges do not come in contact with the foot of the operator. Also the wings by extending over the upper edges of theshovel-blade prevent the foot of the operator from coming in contact with such edges, as would be the case were the plate applied to the front of the shovel instead of at the rear face thereof.

What I claim isl. A shovel comprising a blade, a handle, and a back plate secured to the rear face of the blade at the upper portion thereof and provided at opposite sides of the handle with forwardly-extending wings or flanges, adapt- .the rear face of the blade and provided With In testimony that I claim the foregoing as an integral tang secured to the back of the my oWn'I have hereto aiixed my signature in handle, said back plate being provided at opl the presence of two Witnesses.

` posite sides of the handle With'forwardly- WASTE" WESTERB-ERG. 5 projecting Wings orilanges extending over Witnesses:

the upper edges of the blade, substantially as D. D. CARLTON,

described.

A. L. VAN DER VELDEN. l 

